Cops who arrived at the scene found MacNeil dead from gunshot wounds to various parts of his body. There seemed to be no signs of a forced entry, and the contents of the family safe were intact. But blood spatter and bullet holes lodged in the wall told the tale of a violent struggle.

Brae gave police a statement in which she described the intruder's height and said he was wearing all black. But she said she didn't see his face, which was covered in a black mask with eyehole cutouts. (Click here to watch Brae under questioning).

A few elements of Brae's story struck veteran Detective J.C. Smith as odd -- but one in particular stood out.

"...To be killed...in your own house is a very, a very brutal, violent killing, and to leave a witness to that seemed unusual," Smith told ABC News.

After Brae gave her statement, she was released and sent to the home of MacNeil's brother and sister-in-law. The couple soon sensed something wasn't right; their instincts proved correct.

In a statement given later that evening to another detective, Brae said that MacNeil had called the killer "Nathan" -- the name of her 20-year-old brother, who was away at college in Arizona. Brae quickly backtracked, tried to deny she said it, and then went out of her way to clarify that the killer definitely wasn't her brother.

This change of story, along with other inconsistencies, led police to arrest both Brae and her brother Nathan, who had been living with his grandmother in Arizona.

Police read Brae Hansen her rights that evening and turned on a video camera in the interrogation room. She began to recount an astonishing tale.

"Do you think you should be charged with anything?" asked Smith on the tape.

Stunning Confession: 'I Wished I Could...Kill My Dad'

"I did kind of start the whole thing," replied Brae. "Even if it was -- I don't know -- a lapse of judgment or whatever ... I mentioned to one of my friends, Nicky, that, like, I wished I could ... like, kill my dad or whatever."

The detectives were stunned. "I still can't believe I did this," Brae said, crying. "It's not like me."

Brae admitted to cops that she called Nathan because she was upset at her stepfather. Brae told police, and ABC News in an interview with Mary Fulginiti, that she placed a spare key, a gun that once belonged to her mother and cash in a box on the back patio of the house for Nathan to access so he could commit the murder.

Brae said that the money was originally supposed to pay for a hit man who would make the killing look like a deadly burglary, but that plan fell through. Brae said she decided she didn't want to go through with the arrangement -- but then, the night before the murder, she said Nathan showed up in Brae's bedroom dressed all in black.